Beatriz Vargas Dorneles

Increasing teachers' knowledge about ADHD and learning disorders: an investigation on the role of a psychoeducational intervention.

Objective: To investigate elementary school teachers’ baseline knowledge about ADHD and learning disorders (LD) and the impact of a strategy to increase awareness of these disorders. Method: A total of 37 teachers were selected from four elementary schools in the catchment area of the University Hospital, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. To evaluate teachers’ knowledge, two self-report questionnaires about ADHD and LD were applied before and after an awareness program on these disorders. Results: The intervention significantly increased teachers’ knowledge of both disorders, even after adjustment for confounding factors (p < .001). In the repeated measures ANCOVA, only teachers’ previous knowledge of ADHD/LD (p < .001) was significant in predicting score change in knowledge before and after the intervention. Conclusion: Results suggest the efficacy of a brief psychoeducational intervention program for increasing teacher awareness and knowledge about ADHD and LD. Future studies are warranted to confirm the efficacy and evaluate the long-term impact of this intervention.

Identificação dos procedimentos de contagem e dos processos de memória em crianças com TDAH

The storage and/or automatic and accurate access of basic facts of addition from the long term memory seem to be impaired in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As a result, such group of students ultimately uses more immature counting procedures than their peers without the disorder. The aim of this study is to identify and describe the counting procedures and memory processes used by a group of 28 students, aged between 8 and 14 years old, with ADHD predominantly inattentive type (ADHD-PI) or combined type (ADHD-C). The results indicated that students with ADHD were still using counting procedures considered immature for the expected grade and that, among the memory processes, the decomposition was the most used one.

Qual o papel que a memória de trabalho exerce na aprendizagem da matemática

A memoria de trabalho e um sistema cognitivo que apoia o desenvolvimento de varias aprendizagens, entre elas, a matematica. Discute-se, no artigo, se as dificuldades na matematica estao associadas a defasagens em componentes especificos da memoria de trabalho, ou estao relacionadas a um deficit geral deste sistema, considerando o modelo de Baddeley e Hicht. Analisa-se a diversidade encontrada nos resultados das pesquisas que relacionam memoria de trabalho a dificuldades na matematica, apontando justificativas para tal situacao. Define-se o papel da memoria de trabalho na aprendizagem da matematica, destacando-se que tal aprendizagem esta diretamente ligada a outros processos cognitivos fundamentais para o bom desempenho matematico, como e o caso da velocidade de processamento e da recuperacao fluente de fatos aritmeticos da memoria de longo prazo. O desenvolvimento de mais pesquisas relacionando memoria de trabalho a dificuldades na matematica e de fundamental importância, possibilitando avancos nos processos de prevencao e intervencao.

Impacto do DSM-5 no diagnóstico de transtornos de aprendizagem em crianças e adolescentes com TDAH: um estudo de prevalência

Prevalence studies on learning disabilities (LD) in children and adolescents with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) show inconclusive results, despite the frequent comorbidity between these syndromes. This article describes and analyzes the prevalence of LD in a referred sample of 270 children and adolescents with ADHD treated at Disorders Program of Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity / Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (PRODAH/HCPA-UFRGS), according to the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). The prevalence of LD among the sample was of 46.7%. In that group, the most common LD was the Written Expression Disorder (32.6%). The impact of the changes in the diagnostic criteria for LD proposed by the DSM-5 in the prevalence of these disorders is discussed. Although changes will occur in the rates of LD prevalence, the impact of the DSM-5 on the prevalence, specificity and comorbidity of LD remains uncertain, as there are some proposed changes that will broaden the scope of the criteria and others that will reduce it.

Ensino de fatos aritméticos para escolares com deficiência intelectual

The objective of this study was to identify procedures used for counting by children with intellectual disabilities and to analyze the effects of an intervention program focused on teaching arithmetic facts. Participants were three children between eight and 12 years from a public school in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, whose students come mainly from low socioeconomic families. Based on the review of the literature on the cognitive processes involved in the solution of addition problems and the implications for teaching, we evaluated the efficacy of an educational intervention model as a resource for advancing the use of counting procedures. A ten-meeting program was implemented. These meetings were held once a week and lasted approximately fifty minutes. The proposal consisted of direct, explicit, and systematic teaching by means of instruction sequences, based on the counting procedures used by the students, who were evaluated at two different times (pretest and post test). We found that there was improvement in the counting procedures used by the children after the intervention, revealing that the program was effective. Even brief interventions, such as the present study, can bring important benefits for children with intellectual disability. Such benefits will be the basis of their future knowledge.

Desenvolvimento de fatos numéricos em estudantes com transtornos de aprendizagem

This paper reviews the theme of representation of numerical additive facts in the long-term memory of students with learning disorders. These concepts have been addressed in the literature recently, and the discussion aims to offer education professionals the opportunity to review practices related to teaching the basic facts. This is a comprehensive review of the literature on the subject. This review indicates that children with learning problems in mathematics are distinguished from their peers who have no difficulties in two well-defined academic skills: counting procedures tend to be evolutionarily more immature than those of their peers, and immature or atypical development of access or storage of numerical facts in memory seems to underlie this immature use. We conclude by suggesting stimulation of such skills to avoid increasing such difficulties.

Uma intervenção em contagem com duas crianças surdas

This study investigated if deaf children born to deaf parents are at an advantage to learning number concepts in comparison to deaf children born to hearing parents. We compared the response to intervention of two six-year old children: a native-signing boy and a late-signing girl. They participated in an intervention designed to improve their understanding of additive composition and the use of economic counting strategies in problem solving. Both children achieved similar levels in the use of economic counting strategies and understanding of additive composition, as well as similar increase in their counting range. The similarities in learning by the native-signing and the late-signing children suggest that both groups may benefit from the same sort of teaching.

Contagem numérica em estudantes com síndromes de X-Frágil e Prader-Willi

Difficulties in learning mathematics are a complex issue that is still relatively unexplored. Research into syndromes associated with low mathematical performance indicate that different cognitive profiles underlie learning difficulties in math and show that not all such difficulties have the same origins. This study aimed to investigate characteristics of the principles of numerical counting in two students: one with Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and another with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). Observations were made in the classroom and on the school playground. Five different mathematical situations were used to investigate five numerical principles: one to one correspondence, constant order, cardinality, abstraction and irrelevance of order. It was concluded that the principle of one to one correspondence in these children appears later than in their peers, and the principles of abstraction and irrelevance of order are the least developed in these children. There are children with syndromes such as these enrolled in regular classrooms. In order to ensure inclusion that encourages mathematical success, it is important to gain knowledge about their cognitive abilities and how they appropriate concepts and mathematical content.

Spelling performance of students with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Purpose: to characterize and compare the spelling performance of students with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Methods: sample including 244 Brazilian students from the 3rd to the 5th year, from three public schools (189 without and 55 with the disorder). Students were assessed and classified according to the spelling errors in a word dictation. The average performance was compared per school year, condition (having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or not) and interaction between year and condition. The performance was also compared to the results of the study by Moojen (2011), on orthographic performance in Elementary School. Results: students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disordershowed a higher average in the total number of errors, in the Phoneme/Grapheme Conversion, Simple Contextual Rules and Language Irregularities categories. In the group without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, there was a greater reduction of errors among the school grades (3rd, 4th, 5th). In relation to the study by Moojen (2011), students with the disorder had a lower average. Conclusion: evidence showed that the presence ofAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorderinfluenced the spelling performance of the students evaluated.

Teaching facts of addition to Brazilian children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Storage and/or automatic retrieval of the basic facts of addition from the long-term memory seems to be impaired in children with ADHD presenting arithmetical difficulties. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention model designed to teach basic facts of addition as a means of advancing from counting procedures to memory-based processes in 7 children with ADHD, divided into two groups (control and intervention). The main hypothesis was that the explicit teaching of decomposition strategies would lead to an advanced use of a memory-based procedure. It is an experimental study involving the use of a blind, parallel, randomized, controlled clinical trial. The intervention group participated in 10 one-hour sessions over a 10-week period, while the control group received the same quantity and distribution of teaching time. They carried out the kind of activities generally carried out in the classroom. Although there was no apparent statistical difference between the groups, our findings suggest that the tested educational intervention model is effective at promoting the retrieval of memory-based facts, since the intervention group came to predominantly adopt a memory-based strategy. A carefully designed educational program enhances memory-based processes in students with ADHD. These findings have important implications for further research considering interventions for both students with ADHD and those who perform poorly in arithmetic. Key words: Special education, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), educational model, arithmetical difficulties, educational intervention.